Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Almost 2,000 Americans die of heart disease every day. There are many different types of pathologies that affect the heart. One of the most common pathologies is mitral valve insufficiency. Mitral valve insufficiency occurs when the mitral valve is unable to completely close off fluid communication between the left atrium and the left ventricle during systole. In this situation, the mitral valve leaflets fail to completely coapt or come together to thereby prevent oxygenated blood from flowing in a retrograde fashion from the left ventricle back into the left atrium.
The most common method for repairing mitral valve insufficiency today is open-heart surgery. During open heart surgery, the chest of the patient is opened to create a large enough cavity for access to the heart. One common surgical procedure involves sewing an annuloplasty ring onto the mitral valve annulus from above via an incision into the left atrium of the heart. Various other procedures exist involving the use of suture material in and around the heart.
Minimally invasive surgery, and especially transluminal or percutaneous delivery of instruments into a patient, has become more and more common in various surgical applications. A promising new area of heart surgery involves catheter-based minimally invasive surgery. Catheter-based minimally invasive surgery for mitral valve repair, for example, should lessen the risks that are normally associated with open-heart surgery and will lessen trauma to the patient associated with opening the chest and cutting into the wall of the heart.
One of the problems with using minimally invasive surgery in general, and even more specifically in connection with the heart, is that traditional suture cutting devices are not suitable. For example, conventional hand held scissors-type suture cutters are not suitable for a catheter-based minimally invasive procedure. Accordingly, improved minimally invasive suture cutting devices and methods for cutting suture in a minimally invasive surgery are needed.